How a Telltale Games Joke Made it Into 'Tales from the Borderlands'

Former Telltale Games employees recounted a story together the explained how a misunderstanding led to a funny scene that was kept in Tales from the Borderlands.

With news of Telltale Games hitting employees with substantial layoffs soon followed by a statement from the game studio that the studio was indeed beginning "a majority studio closure," now-former Telltale employees have been sharing memories, statements, and words of encouragement on Twitter. In one of the lighter discussions, Jessica Krause, the former lead writer at Telltale, requested that someone tell the story of Rhys flipping the middle finger before sprinting away in Episode 5 of Tales from the Borderlands.

Narrative designer Molly Maloney who worked on Telltale's games such as Minecraft: Story Mode and Tales from the Borderlands responded to Krause's request with an explanation that said the requested animation was worded in a way that led to some confusion. The goal was to have Rhys, one of the protagonists in Telltale's Borderlands games, turning off the monitors as he's running by them in the hallway. The wording used was "flips off the monitors as he runs by" though, something that led to the clip below that players will remember from the game's fifth episode.

When we requested the animation for Rhys turning off Hyperion monitors in Tales from the Borderlands ep 5, the requested anim was worded as “Rhys flips off the monitors as he runs by.” What we got back was so good @ItsMeNickHerman decided to just go wth that. #TelltaleMemories

— Molly Maloney (@Llyann) September 23, 2018

This finished product: pic.twitter.com/jW0nYKvxHY

— Molly Maloney (@Llyann) September 23, 2018

Others chimed in on the discussion to share in the memories with Nick Herman, current mission director at Ubisoft San Francisco and former creative director at Telltale, saying that this was a perfect example of how things usually ran at the company.

This is a great example of how you things regularly worked at Telltale. Especially in the back half of a season, you had to be crafty with the rersources available and go with the flow if it wasn’t directly at odds with the vision. Thanks for the memories, @Llyann! //t.co/qYQzD1DhEr

— Nick Herman (@ItsMeNickHerman) September 23, 2018

Following the news about Telltale's closure, fans and other game studios have reached out with support and job opportunities. Former employees have also shared more stories like these as well as speculation on the future of the studio's projects with Clementine's voice actor for The Walking Dead speaking with uncertainty about the rest of the episodes. A full statement from Telltale Games is expected to come later this week though with more information on future and ongoing projects.